Sony has announced that they’ve bought up Jade Raymond’s fledgeling Haven Studios, adding another developer to their global network of first party PlayStation Studios.
Update 11th July 22: The acquisition has now closed. Haven is now officially a part of PlayStation Studios.
It's official! The agreement to acquire Haven has closed. Welcome to the PlayStation Studios family, @HavenStudiosInc! pic.twitter.com/rLFjsRYWdy
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) July 11, 2022
The announcement comes almost exactly one year on from the studio’s founding in March 2021, with Haven Studios getting to work on a PlayStation exclusive original IP in an initial partnership with Sony. Now having seen one more year of development and the progress that Haven has made on a AAA multiplayer game, Sony has decided it’s the right time to bring them into the fold. This would likely be one of the 10 live service multiplayer games that Sony has planned for the next few years.
Jade Raymond is one of the best-known known individuals in the games industry. Having been a producer and then executive producer through the early years of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, she went on to work on the first Watch Dogs before moving on from Ubisoft. In 2015 she founded Motive Studios at EA, intent on making Star Wars games in partnership with Visceral Games and Amy Hennig. We all know how that turned out, but Motive did craft the single player for Star Wars Battlefront II during her tenure and has become a core part of EA’s line up of studios, currently working on a Dead Space remake.
She left Motive and EA in late 2018, announcing in March 2019 that she was to be a vice president and head up Google’s Studios, Stadia Games and Entertainment. We all know how that went as well, so it was time for greener pastures once more in early 2021 and the fresh founding of Haven Studios in partnership with Sony.
In a message on the PlayStation blog, Raymond writes:
We’ve made amazing progress in a short time thanks to our talented, passionate team and their exceptional contributions. We established a culture at Haven grounded in kindness, adaptability and courage that unlocks creativity. Our first new IP for PlayStation is on track to deliver a AAA multiplayer experience with a vision to build a systemic and evolving world focused on freedom, thrill, and playfulness that will keep players entertained and engaged for years.
Today, the Haven team begins a new phase of our journey, as part of the PlayStation Studios family. Working with Hermen, Connie Booth and the team at PlayStation over the past year has been a career highlight. SIE is a supportive partner that truly understands the creative process and what it takes to make a blockbuster AAA game. They have empowered and encouraged us to bring our bold vision to life and make our dreams come true and we could not be more thrilled about this opportunity to strengthen our partnership.
As a SIE first-party studio, we will have the opportunity to collaborate with some of the world’s most renowned development teams, including studios like Guerrilla, Naughty Dog, Media Molecule, and Insomniac Games, the creators of games that have inspired us as players and developers for years. We’re excited to learn from these world-class studios, as well as the exceptional central creative, technology and marketing teams whose expertise will enable us to deliver even better games to players.
To our Haven team – a huge thank you. It’s been one of the most rewarding years of my career – and to the players out there, we can’t wait to share more. We’re just at the beginning of what is sure to be a wondrous adventure that will span generations.
Source: PS Blog
